Open Mentorship Handbook¶

Welcome to the Open Mentorship Handbook¶

This handbook is the result of a process of reviewing over 15 years of collective experiences with open mentorships led by Outreachy organizers. Our goal is to empower the development and the evolution of derivative and/or sister open mentorship initiatives through the consolidation of knowledge on observed mentorship practices in open projects.

Our handbook is intended to be a living document. We invite researchers and practitioners alike to read it, review it, share it and improve it.

Structure¶

This handbook is structured in three main sections:

Introduction to Open Mentorships: We establish common ground in our discussions throughout the handbook by defining a series of pervasive concepts in the context of open mentorships.
Learning Paths: We introduce the community to the specific context and perspective of three main actors: mentees, mentors and organizers.
Case Studies: We illustrate concepts and insights presented in previous sections through real examples of open mentorship programs.

Where to start¶

For researchers

You want to understand what open mentorships are, what they entail and their manifestations to help us document the permeating culture of open projects.

Introduction to Open Mentorships
For future and current mentees

You want to contribute to open projects or create and maintain your own, but there's a significant gap between where you currently are and where you want to be.

Becoming a Mentee
For future and current mentors

You're an experienced contributor, and now you're either being asked to mentor or you wonder whether you should become one.

Becoming a Mentor
For future and current organizers

You have a systemic view of open projects and you want to promote change within this ecosystem at a bigger scale.

Becoming an Organizer

Make it better¶

Improve existing handbook chapters and sections
Suggest new chapters and sections
Showcase your open mentorship program by submitting it as a case study
Translate this handbook into another language¹

How to cite this work¶

Anna e só [Giovanna Barbosa], Omotola Omotayo, Tilda Udufo, Karen Sandler. (2026). Open Mentorship Handbook v1.0.

This handbook was created using Zensical, an open source project designed by the team behind Material for MkDocs. As of mid-2026, Zensical supports basic internationalization and localization features. We're currently waiting for the implementation of full compatibility with MkDocs internationalization and localization plugins on Zensical to support other languages. ↩